Amsterdam is the Netherlands’ capital, and their most populated city. As a startup hub, the city experiences an international mix, and due to its transient nature it experiences continual reinvention which is great for startups wanting to experiment with new ideas, and scrap ideas that don’t work with less fear or guilt.
Amsterdam is appealing to entrepreneurs with its lack of restrictions, simple tax structure, and ease of incorporation.
Innovative technologies like 3D printing have made their way there, and an emergence of data centers and cloud computing have been welcomed to the city.
Here are 50 new, emerging, and established startups headquartered in Amsterdam that we think you should get to know.
Commerce
Fashiolista
This startup created a community for fashion inspiration in 2010 that has grown to over 1.3M users across the globe.
The platform allows users to save and share their fashion “finds” to help other users discover new items. Its user base is highly engaged, who “love” 15M items each month.
Fashiolista raised 500K in early 2011 from Atomico, and as the rise of “discovery” platforms continues to grow, we are excited to see how this fashion startup evolves.
AliveShoes
AliveShoes is leveling out the barriers to entry in the shoe industry by providing a technology that gives any user the ability to design, sell, and build their own shoe brand online.
The platform provides design tools, ecommerce tools, and both a production and shipping facilities within Italy’s “shoe valley”. Users can get their product from launch to customers in 4 weeks.
AliveShoes launched in 2013 at Startupbootcamp Accelerator and has raised $595K to date.
Peerby
Missing an ingredient for your dinner, or looking to borrow a ladder to clean that top window?
The Peerby app was created to help you borrow things you need from the people in your neighborhood quickly without spending money on things you need just once in a while.
The app is on Android and iOS, and has over 100K members in 20+ european cities. Both the borrower and lender are covered against damage or loss for a daily fee paid by the borrower.
Founded in 2011, the startup has raised around 2.5M in seed funding led by French XAnge Private Equity, and also included Sanoma Ventures, TechStars, and angels from Canada and the United States.
3D Hubs
Stats are floating around that 3D printer owners tend to use their device less than 10 hours per week.
3D Hubs formed to create the largest and fastest network of 3D printers, connecting around 16,000 printer owners worldwide to provide access to 3D printing to virtually anyone within 10 miles of their home.
Founded in April 2013, 3D Hubs has raised around $4.5M in Series A late 2014 backed by Balderton Capital, DOEN, and Zeeburg.
Zazzy
Zazzy is taking the 3D printing revolution to the jewelry market, and created a platform enabling people of all skill levels to design, create, and sell their own jewelry, which is 3D printed in under 5 minutes.
The end-to-end production platform provides software, design tools (with automated model generation and instant photorealistic preview), and distribution.
Zazzy was founded March of 2013, and last year received backing from prominent angel investors like IIko Bosman, Marcel Beemsterboer, Onno Bakker, Jan-Joost Rueb, and Floris Rost van Tonningen.
Freenom
Freenom is a free domain provider founded in 2012, that integrates free domains with the latest website building and hosting technologies.
Freedom operates several Top Level Domains and offers all of its domains for free. With over 20 million active domains, it is the second largest domain operator after Verisign.
Freenom uses AnyCast Cloud tech, and has 40+ other security partners like Twitter, Internet Identity, and Kaspersky.
Backed by Kima Ventures, this startup has raised around $3M in Series A funding to continue to expand its TLD operations, AnyCast Cloud network, and development of commercial initiatives.
Crowdy House
The middleman is cut out again! Crowdy House allows designers and makers to sell their latest and unique designs exclusively and directly to consumers around the globe through their platform.
Crowdy House has been growing around 40% each month since January 2015, and received $645.5K of seed investment along with being a part of the Rockstart Incubator.
Undeveloped
This platform makes selling domains quicker and more visually pleasing. Domain names are listed on an attractive landing page, and buyers can search for domain names and get in touch with the seller directly.
The platform is safe, secure, and transparent to users. Undeveloped is currently only in the Netherlands top-level domain.
This very young startup was founded May 2014, and has raised around $417K with its most recent funding round May 29, 2015.
Spaceboxx
This brand new startup was founded early this year, and offers temporary storage space to customers. SpaceBoxx provides the logistics dropping off empty plastic boxes and picking up full ones, and stuff in storage can be followed by users with an app and shared with others.
SpaceBox raised $1.2M through a collective of investors like Michiel Muller, Marc Schröder, Maarten Beucker Andreae, and more.
The startup launched in Amsterdam and plans to expand to at least 10 other cities this year.
Fairphone
This startup was crowned Europe’s “Fastest Growing Startup of 2015” at the TNW Conference Europe.
Launched in 2010, Fairphone is a social enterprise hardware startup that creates ethically sourced and built smartphones.
The startup’s entire supply chain is transparent from the minerals and components, to the people who build it, to the entire process and its social and ecological impact.
Fairphone crowd funded their business initially raising €3.5m from 11,000 people.
Scrap Connection
This startup has launched in a space that has had little innovation in the past decades. Scrap Connection connects verified suppliers and buyers in the scrap metal industry providing a more efficient and safe global trading experience.
Every member of the platform must complete strict due diligence before they are accepted. Since launch in 2012, Scrap Connection has raised around $218K in funding to date.
Cirqle
Cirqle is a curated product platform for fashion influencers, online retailers, and consumers that brings visual collections which highlight some of the best sourced fashion products.
The startup recruits influential bloggers, and allows consumers to make purchases from leading influencers on the platform.
Users can follow tastemakers and storefronts, brands, and people to be the first to see the latest and hottest items. Founded in 2014, this young startup has received $500K in seed funding.
Fintech
TabTrader
This trading terminal allows users to track and trade crypto-currency of different types from a single mobile interface.
TabTrader provides fast price charts that allow trading directly from charts, price alerts, and a newsfeed curated from Reddit, Coindesk, and Bitcoin Magazine.
The app is currently only launched for Android devices with it’s initial seed round of $73.8K from Rockstart Accelerator raised February 2015.
For Your Business
Framer
The days of rapid prototyping are upon us! This process allows startups to mock up the future state of a system quickly, generate quick feedback, and improve the final design before development begins.
Framer is an open-source JavaScript framework for rapid prototyping, which has a bundle with Framer Generator that allows users to import layers into common design tools like Photoshop and Sketch.
With experienced entrepreneurs and designers as founders, this startup raised initial seed funding of $1.3M on March 3, 2015 from Greylock Partners and Foundation Capital. With clients like Google and Dropbox, we are excited to see the future for this young startup.
Quiver
Gaining a lot of attention at the recent Startupbootcamp Demo day, this document protection startup allows users to embed and share their files to secure and protect their data through unique security options. Users can choose the protection they need, track, and control their digital content wherever it is.
Quiver won the Dell For Entrepreneurs 2015 award, which gives them access to the marketing, sales, and technology power of Dell, along with access to their partners like Accenture, Nalta Consultancy, and more.
Quiver launched with $19.7K in funding from Startupbootcamp, and is rumored to have around €10 million in funding committed to their next round.
Peerz
Wondering what others think about you? Peerz is a platform that helps users understand their positive qualities through the opinions of their peers to construct a more objective and beneficial view of their strengths.
Their tool is based on the RIASEC model in Holland that is a well-known, scientific model used to help individuals choose a career path.
Peerz launched in 2010, and has raised an undisclosed amount of funding.
WeTransfer
We have all experienced the pain of trying to email large files. WeTransfer is a file sharing platform that has grown worldwide with around 25 million active users to solve this everyday problem.
This tool allows users to send large files (up to 2GB) quickly and free of charge through its simplistic interface.
WeTransfer raised $25M in its Series A funding round earlier this year from Highland Capital Partners Europe.
FuelUp
Looking for new ideas for your growth hacking strategy? FuelUp launched a subscription based platform that features business ideas, new products, and startups.
The startup charges $278 per year to gain access to their platform. Their software and algorithm ranks startups to help users discover and connect to the ones they have a good fit with. FuelUp has raised around $500K in funding.
Collaborne
Collaborne is a business execution and collaboration software that allows an organization’s employees, clients, and other important roles to interact with information compliant with organization policies.
The software is accessible from any computer or mobile device, and integrates with dozens of widely used solutions like Salesforce, SharePoint, Zendesk, and more.
Late 2014, this young startup raised around $1M in funding from a variety of angel investors including executives in Silicon Valley.
Jobado
Raising around $626K earlier this year, Jobado is a mobile application and web portal that allows users to post location-specific job openings that individuals in Jobado’s growing community are able to find through a GPS locator via their mobile device.
The startup currently serves both jobseekers as well as SME’s in the UK.
Entelligo BV
Entelligo BV is a SaaS for the renewable energy industry that reduces the sell cycle and increases conversions. Suppliers can see what the impact of their systems will be for customers, allowing them to tell customers what they can expect in profits and energy usage.
The startup launched in the Rockstart Accelerator and has raised $94.2K in seed funding. We are excited to see how this startup evolves in this growing space.
Speakap
Speakap is a social network for employees within a company to connect and share information that combines features for top social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.
Launched in 2012, Speakap raised $1.2M in series B funding in late 2013.
Wercker
Startups providing SaaS solutions for developers continues to rise in popularity, and Wercker has joined that train providing a solution to help developers reduce risk and eliminate waste in their software development process.
The solution is a cloud continual delivery service helping developers test and deploy code often, where small bits of code are pushed out by the developer to the solution at a rapid pace.
Wercker launched in March of 2012 and has raised $3.4M in seed investment over two round from 7 investors lead by prominent investment firms including Shamrock Ventures, Vitulum Ventures, and Greylock Partners.
Casengo
This startup is considered to be the Whatsapp of customer service, and gears its cloud SaaS towards online retailers and small business rather than the widely catered to larger businesses.
The platform allows companies to provide customer service through social networks, email, or chat, in real-time, and creates one inbox for all customer support requests.
Founded in October 2011, Casengo received $2M in seed funding in April 2014 led by henQ Invest, a venture capital firm based in the Netherlands. As customer support continues to move to social media, we are excited to see how Casengo’s product evolves.
Ed Tech
Teach ‘n Go
The education space is hot right now, and this startup is taking a different approach to solving a common problem amongst most education providers: staying organized.
Teach ‘n Go is a platform that combines course management, scheduling, grading, online collaboration, and payment tracking on a very simple user-interface.
The platform essentially automates and centralizes an educator’s workflow. To date the startup has raised $485K in seed funding led by CYBAN.
StudyTube
Customization of all kinds is trending, and StudyTube is bringing that idea to the education space with their platform that customizes educational content to fit the needs of individual students.
Their plug and play solution allows universities, publishers, and other businesses to build, deliver, and sell courses from the cloud, with its first product being an online “study coach” for law students.
Students can monitor their progress and gain feedback on where they need more practice, while StudyTube will automatically generate content to accelerate learning in those trouble areas.
StudyTube has raised around $2M in seed funding from HENQ.
Travel
TravelBird
TravelBird is a mix of Groupon + Booking.com, and was recently called “a European scale-up to watch”. The platform offers daily travel packages, already servicing over 2.5 million customers in 17 countries.
TravelBird aims to surprise customers with unique and inspiring deals, offered at a great value.
Launched in 2010, TravelBird has raised a whopping $59.3M in funding led by Rocket Internet, with its most recent raise of $18.4M in May 2015.
Favoroute
Tired of missing out on sights or events you wish you would have checked out while you were on vacation or constantly forgetting when your flight leaves?
Favoroute launched to help travelers create personal travel guidebooks that includes information such as itineraries, flights, and other information like hotspots, secret gems, and more from professional travel bloggers.
Users can print their guidebook or bring it along as a mobile application. Favoroute has raised $115K in seed funding.
Marketing, Sales, Content
Olery
Olery is helping hotels take their online reviews and social media feedback into actionable business intelligence.
This reputation management and benchmarking solution was designed by hotel managers and created for hotel businesses of any size, allowing hotels to engage their customers and obtain real-time commentary from their guests.
The solution evaluates the online reputation of a hotel through the collection, analysis, and management of all online mentions on review and booking websites, and social media.
After being founded in 2010, Olery raised $1M in funding in early 2012.
LeadBoxer
This young startup launched mid 2014 in the Rockstart Accelerator raising $20K in seed funding.
LeadBoxer is a sales lead generation app that shows a company’s sales team who visited their website and how to get in touch with them.
The app also includes insights for cross and upselling by using online data and user-behaviour.
Usabilla
This user experience testing tool helps marketers, designers, UI, and UX practitioners around the world build better websites with improved user experience.
The platform allows the collection of visual, quantitative user feedback on their website in a fun way, where groups of participants answer questions, and the results are analyzed and presented visually with charts and heatmaps.
Usabilla raised around $1M in seed funding led by Boralis BV in 2011. Now with a user base over 25K+, and customers like Linkedin, Disney, and General Electric, we are excited to see this startup’s expansion.
Scoupy
Tired of going through the weekly ads to clip coupons you may or may not need? Scoupy is the Groupon of couponing that offers users discounts and promotions within the proximity of the user.
The app is on iPhone and Android, and is based on the GPS-location of the user, who can discover the best discounts at nearby grocery stores, shops, bars, and more.
Founded in 2011, Scoupy is backed by Sanoma Ventures and raised around $2.59M in funding.
Vigour
Wish you could take your movie from your iPad and just swipe it over to your TV?
Vigour, launched in 2012, allows anyone to conduct smooth cross-device sharing allowing users to swipe content fluidly from one screen to another, all within the same browser, through connected applications that run on any device.
Vigour allows media companies and operators to boost business with their multiscreen experience, delivered in a cost efficient, low complexity interface.
The company has raised seed capital of $650K to date led by hub:raum, and participation from Linden Mobile Ventures, and secured a strategic partnership with German tech company DG-i.
Iceleads
With relationships with over 15,000 resellers and 3,000 manufacturers, Iceleads helps brand manufacturers drive hot leads from their websites to authorized online resellers.
The platform lists resellers for a product adding a “buy now” button to the manufacturer’s website, listing sellers for any product including their price and stock position.
Iceleads charges clients a 2,000 euro startup fee, plus an ongoing subscription fee.
Earlier this year, Iceleads raised $3.2M in Series A funding led by Vortex Capital Partners to raise its profile in the US and continue international expansion.
Bundle
With digital photography at our fingertips, the amount of photos the average person takes each week is between 51-100.
We take a whole lot more photos than we used to, but often don’t have the time to go and organize. Bundle is a platform that pulls photos from your smartphone and Dropbox, picks out what it thinks are the best using computer vision algorithms, and packages them into cohesive albums.
The more you use Bundle, the smarter the algorithm becomes at creating albums. Bundle has raised around $581K to date led by Startup Bootcamp and Utrechtinc.
Dashmote
Dashmote is an image search platform that allows users to browse the most popular image search databases on one interface.
Users can select their favorite images and easily create mood/inspiration boards that are easily shared with others.
Earlier this year, Dashmote raised $491.3K in their initial seed funding round.
Silk
With content marketing on the rise, a need to keep it all organized has emerged. Silk launched in 2010 to make it easier for people to to interact with content online.
The cloud-based application allows users to manage their online content via interactive web pages called “Silks”. Silk allow users and non users to explore data more efficiently.
Silks has raised $3.7M in three rounds of funding from 9 investors, with rounds led by Atomico and New Enterprise Associates.
Plot Projects
Plot Projects is a location based mobile marketing platform that sends notifications when a user nears a specific location.
This geofencing solution is available on all mobile platforms, and lets users create and track geofencing campaigns through the online dashboard.
Plot Projects has raised $1m in seed funding, and using funds to fuel commercial operations and continue their global expansion.
PeerReach
Social media continues to grow as an important leverage in personal and professional branding. PeerReach takes your social media, and uses an algorithm to determine your expertise and calculates your influence on the web within this expertise.
Users are able to find out the best social media conversations to join to raise their social influencer score.
PeerReach raised €310k in seed funding from Marc van der Chijs, Javest Investment Fund, and James Olden. The platform currently holds a database of 50 million accounts.
Music and Events
Kollekt.fm
What inspires your music playlist? Kollekt.fm was created to answer that question by integrating existing services like YouTube and Soundcloud connecting that music with information from a user’s social media, blogs, and other pages.
The platform has a social network that allows users to connect with other like-minded fans, concerts, and parties. Users can recommend music to each other, collaborate on playlists, and comment on music.
Kollekt.fm has an undisclosed pre-seed round from Rockstart Accelerator in February 2015.
Songflow
Songflow is a music distribution app for independent artists that allows them to sell and distribute their new releases on the most popular music services.
The artist keeps full control and receive 100% of the royalties, while the platform provides key insights into market potential by monitoring social platforms and sales data about artists within its community.
With independent artists on the rise, we are excited to watch Songflow’s expansion in this market.
Tiqets
Several different investors have helped this startup raise around $1.45M in funding to bring a solution to travelers worldwide to offer a great entertainment experience.
Tiqets is a platform that allows travel companies like hotels and airlines sell entertainment like tours, shows, and events to their customers through multiple touchpoints.
The startup is investing in its product development and mobile technology to expand its global growth in the coming years.
LiveOnDemand
Ever wanted to host your own event, but didn’t have the capital or know where to begin? LiveOnDemand is a platform that crowdfunds live events, and puts the power in the event goers hands.
Users choose who they want to see on stage and where. If enough people join the event, LiveOnDemand will help the user bring that event to fruition.
Currently in beta, this startup has gained a lot of attention when one of their campaigns led to lean startup author Eric Ries speaking in the Netherlands early this year.
The startup has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Ries because of this event to begin expanding internationally.
Health Tech
Notificare
Notificare is a mobile marketing solution that enables users to engage their customers in smart ways, providing relevant and interactive messages.
The solution segments users via behavior, location, and engagement, and is easily integrated with existing CRM software.
Notificare raised $223.5K in May of this year from Keadyn, and we are curious to see how they grow and compete in this trending space.
Fitmo
As fitness continues going mobile, we are excited to follow startups like Fitmo, that bring personal training to the convenience of your cellphone.
The platform connects users to a trusted community of real personal trainers who facilitate a continuous, personalized online coaching experience, at the rate of what a gym memberships would cost.
The app integrates with major fitness platforms in the market like Runkeeper, Fitbit, and Jawbone. Fitmo has a strategic partnership with fitness giant, Jawbone, and is backed by Tier-1 VC firms like Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz raising around $1.3M to date.
Keep an eye out for their launch on the Apple Watch distribution channel.
Mint Solutions
It is estimated that 1 in 5 medications are given incorrectly in hospitals around the globe.
Mint Solutions launched with its initial solution to this problem, MedEye, that helps nurses verify and document patient medication administration using a computer vision technology that integrates with hospital information systems.
Mint Solutions has raised around $6.2M in seed and Series A funding from NSA Ventures, Seventure Partners, and Life Sciences Partners.
Productivity
MarkO
If Siri had a boyfriend, his name would be MarkO. MarkO is a context aware application that sends you reminders at the right place and time, so you can be more productive.
Users create tasks, assign a place or location, and MarkO reminds them to complete the task when they are passing by that location. Users can also share their tasks or delegate a task to others.
Currently MarkO is only available in the Play Store, and available for smartwatches with Android Wear.
Surfly
Surfly is an internet co-browsing tool that allows users to surf the internet with someone else easily, quickly, and securely, providing a powerful tool for customer and technical support.
For personal use, users can book a trip easily with a distant friend, or give a presentation remotely. Surfly was selected as a finalist at the SXSW Accelerator in 2014, and in March of this year released their technology to the public.
Linden Mobile Ventures has backed the startup with seed funding of $700K, and is closely advising the group on launching an extensive, international marketing campaign.
ZEEF
Not happy with your search results? ZEEF created a crowdsourced content curation platform where users conduct a search on ZEEF, and are presented with a link of directories created by other users who have spent time figuring out which links are sensible and useful on a topic.
ZEEF is different because listings can be embedded as a widget on external websites, enriching existing content with relevant information, and creates a cross-promoting circle between a website and ZEEF page.
Since launch in 2013 and exhibiting at TechCrunch’s startup alley, ZEEF has raised around $2.9M, and is expanding its commercial operations in the U.S. opening a New York office.
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